Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Chicken Noodle Soup {Electric Pressure Cooker Recipe}

This recipe is comfort food at it's best! Perfect for a cold, winter day. If you're not feeling well, it is the cure - it really is! I've posted the crock pot version here in case you don't have a pressure cooker, but a pressure cooker makes it SOO much easier to make! You can have it made and on the table in 30 to 40 minutes.

We made this a few days ago for a soup & bread party that we had at our house. We like to invite our neighbors over to get together every other month or so. A dear lady that lives around the corner came and she was so excited - she loves this soup! We made it for her once before and she said it was the best chicken soup she's ever tasted.

And do you know what the secret ingredient is? Squash! Can you believe it? Do you notice that the color is a little more orange that your average chicken noodle soup? It's lovely isn't it? Not only does it look prettier, but the squash gives the soup an extra burst of "comfort" taste. You can use any squash that blends into a smooth puree. Hubbard would be perfect, since that's the squash I'm featuring this week!

Combine all the ingredients except
egg noodles and cream soups in an electric pressure cooker. Pressure on high
for 21 minutes (you only need to cook for 6 minutes if using pre-cooked meat). Use the quick release steam method. Then remove chicken carefully, discard bones, and chop meat.
Return chopped chicken to pot. Add 2 cans cream of chicken or mushroom
soup (or one of each) and heat with the lid off until warm on the
"saute" or "brown" pressure cooker setting. Stir
occasionally. Meanwhile cook the egg noodles separately in boiling water on the
stove according to package directions. Drain and add to soup when done. Taste
the soup and add salt or pepper to taste.

I haven't tried cooking the
noodles with the soup in the pressure cooker - I'm pretty picky about my noodle
"done-ness". I like to control how done they are really carefully and
that's easier to do on the stove. You can add cooked rice instead of the egg
noodles or eat it without. It's also Gluten-free as long as you don't put in
the egg noodles and thicken with ultra-gel.

You can use either raw or cooked. If using raw, I usually cook it for the 21 minutes listed in the recipe. If the chicken is already cooked you only need to cook it for 6 minutes in the pressure cooker.

This tip about adding canned pumpkin to chicken soup has revolutionized my chicken soup!! Thank you so much. I just put in my SECOND batch of the day! I used 1/2 of a 15 oz. can of pumpkin for my regular soup makings (4 1/2 cups broth or water + vegies, etc.). Besides imparting a great color, the pumpkin adds a heartiness to the soup without taking over the flavor. Thanks again! Greer